By BEQIR SINA
Memorie.al / The Mirakaj and Libohova family, members of the Albanian community, friends and acquaintances, ten years ago, said their final farewell to Manjola Mirakaj – Libohova. She passed away on May 31, 2013, after a serious illness, leaving behind her two daughters, Ana and Emma, her husband Agjah Libohova, her sister and brother, and her parents, Lek and Dolores Mirakaj. Manjola was born in the infamous internment camp in Gradishte, Lushnja, on January 24, 1969, and her fate brought her to know the suffering and hardships of life from a young age, seeing with her own eyes the violence of the communist dictatorship, after her father Leka, when Manjola and Matilda were little – spent 10 years in the terrible prisons of Spaç and Qafë Bari.
Her sudden death at a young age has shocked not only her parents Lek and Dolores Mirakaj, her husband Agjah Libohova, her sister and brother, her relatives the Mirakaj and Spahiu, but all former political prisoners, former internees, friends and comrades of this family in the USA.
Manjola is one of those thousands of girls (children) who were born and raised in internment camps, deprived due to the communist policy followed by the dictatorial communist regime of Enver Hoxha, only for children in internment camps, where she spent several decades, until with the advent of democracy, she finally emerged into the free world.
Eugen Mirlika, a former political prisoner living in Italy, writes in his essay “Remembrance of a “Flower””, about Manjola Mirakaj, who passed away on May 31, 2013, that: “Everything came to my mind when I received the bitter news of the change in the life of Manjola, the daughter of a friendly and loving couple, Lek Mirakaj and Dolores Spahiu, peers, fellow sufferers, fellow travelers on the ‘Roads of Hell’, of several decades of our lives as ‘survivors’ in the concentration camps of Myzeqe.
That beautiful girl was born on a January day in 1969 and they had named her after a flower. She had grown up in the mud of Gradisht, in the barracks covered with the cancer-causing ether of that internment sector in the heart of Tërbuf”!
Merlika further states; “Like all her friends and comrades, as a child of those families that the State had sealed with its black curse of ‘class enemy’, she grew up breathing the air of hatred, which a caste of criminals had turned into the daily breath of Albanians. Those children, born in those years and in those conditions of misery, were the best expression of their parents’ resistance to the dictatorship, of their love for life and its values.
Compared to the world of well-being and freedom, where people are reluctant to have children, due to the difficulties of raising and educating them, Manjola, her sister and brother, together with all their friends and comrades, are powerful evidence of the vitality of the class, of its enduring power, of the tendency to renew the family and its tradition, even in the most difficult conditions, even when the all-powerful proletarian state was working for its extinction”, writes Merilika, he and his family, were persecuted for 45 years in Albania.
However, of course, there is no great or small death, since every death is painful, but Manjola’s escape was extremely difficult, as much as facing the serious illness, which was a difficult battle, which Manjola could not win, with all the great courage that characterized her, with all the desire for life and the miracle of medicine of this blessed country. The United States United States of America.
Manjola was born in the Gradishta internment camp on January 24, 1969, and passed away on May 31, 2013. Her childhood was faced with the absurdity of the dictatorship, where instead of toys; she was brought closer to forced appeal, deprivation of the most basic things of life, fear and persecution. Because, she was a member of two families known in their areas, but also throughout Albania, the Mirakaj and Spahiu families.
How unjustly she was “punished” by the absurdity that the savage communist regime used, with the only “guilt” that she and those thousands of persecuted children had committed, because she was a child from two large families.
After all, the very lives of these people, who were shot without trial, tortured, imprisoned, their property and everything they had was taken away, they were exiled to internment camps, they were sent accompanied by ignorant policemen, through swamps and marshes, they deprived them and their children of even the most basic rights, including their education.
Therefore, today their lives represent a bitter and unwritten story. It is a triangular story of these people, which stands between the dignities of the family, love for the homeland and the nation, and faith in the religion to which they belonged.
Because of their strong character, their great human spirit, generous and very noble, with a hardened Western education and culture, in which they kept their hope alive, their faith and their noble ideal, even today, three decades after that regime fell, these same people as genius architects – these same people who were oppressed and raped for 45 years, rose one day as triumphant, on a “building that had been rotten and ruined” by time.
A “building” that they called the “Fortress of Communism”, which, although, belonged to the civilized world, to that world that this much-suffered nation, in the heart of Europe, had given so much to, and rightfully belonged to, just as these people belonged to, because they had given so much to Albania, their nation.
In a word, the life of these people, who were shot without trials, tortured, imprisoned, their property and everything they had was taken away, they were exiled to internment camps, through swamps and marshes, and they deprived them and their children of even the most elementary rights, their youth and education. What, of course, today is a description of their journey, through the three eternal kingdoms of all humanity: “Birth, Life and Death”.
During this long imaginary journey, which lasted so long that it was unthinkable, it was these same people who tried to describe the pain and suffering that the dictatorial regime caused them – the state of the human soul, after all those terrible sufferings, “Pilgrimages with loot on their shoulders like Golgotha”, through terrible roads, full of lamentations, tears and pain, but also hope.
This was described quite beautifully by Dom Nikolin Përgjini, a priest who, together with his family, went through the communist hell for five years in the internment camps in Albania, at the “Mass of Light” at St. Thomas Church, in Long Island – New York. In the house of God, where prayers for the soul of Manjola would be offered, by her parents, Leka and Lola, her brother and sister, the closest people of her family and dozens of her fellow sufferers – who came to America from the internment camps in Albania.
“As a clergyman, I have often used the hardship that these people have gone through, but also several times in my sermons, blessing these people for the strong character of that time and for their attitude and hope – who never humbled themselves and did not give up in the face of difficulties”!
“Of course, today – said Dom Nikolini, – during the sermon, we are not talking here about Gina, Manjola’s grandmother, but about Manjola herself – where we have come together to say the last goodbye to this angel – that is, Manjola. And at the same time, – he emphasized, – remember those words of hers – describing exactly that strong character, who stands in difficulty.”
Dom Nikolini, addressed Manjola’s parents, her husband, who were most saddened by this loss, with the words; “I am trying more or less to address you as a family, to have that same character, that strength and that faith, that perseverance, that continuation of life, although, today, you are in great sorrow. You are in pain, you are in tears! You are in suffering, where you are saying the last goodbye, to your daughter, wife, mother, sister, niece, cousin, friend, your unforgettable co-suffering”, – said Dom Nikolin Përgjini
“Meanwhile, – he continued – I understand quite well in these moments your tears and sorrow, remembering also those difficulties that you all participants have gone through, in those years that are almost unforgettable, although, now you have come to America, where life is quite beautiful.
And, when Manjola was married with children, and suddenly fell ill at a very young age, at a time when she could have enjoyed herself, her husband and children, her family, society and all beloved, was separated from us for eternal life, and this great pain can only pass us by, if we as citizens or, as Christians, follow it with the questions that Christ addressed to Martha, when he said: ‘Do you understand who I am?! I am the one who gives resurrection and hope’. And she in that humility of hers said: ‘Yes Lord – Yes Lord”!
During the sermon of the Light Mass, Dom Nikolini, said that; We all must believe that life does not end with death” – For Dom Nikolini: “A person who, even though he may leave us, and we are unable to speak and relate to him, to communicate as we communicated before when he was alive, means a person who truly believes in God, and is convinced that communication with those who have gone to eternal life continues and is possible”.
He prayed that Manjola rest in peace; “As a family, I am sure that you have many memories – you have many thoughts, – Dom Nikolini continued his sermon, – you have many experiences and memories, which I am sure that you will keep and cherish and will always remember those moments that you value in this man, that he had as values and strong character and tell him that; Today and always, we will remember, we will pray for you and at the same time, we will ask that you pray for us too”!
After the one-hour mass, the procession of dozens of people headed towards the “Saint Charles Cemetery” cemetery in Wellwood in Farmingdale, on Long Island – New York.
Dom Nikolin Përgjini, there on the open grave, where the coffin with Manjola’s lifeless body was placed, held the last prayer. Sobs and tears, sighs of pain were heard in the crowd, throwing a fresh rose on her coffin. Everyone placed wreaths of fresh flowers on the coffin. How many flowers, how many roses, how many wreaths of flowers! Because one of the flowers that was plucked was the beautiful girl of the internment camps, Manjola Mirakaj herself.
Mother Dolorez, lowered her tearful eyes on the coffin and conveyed the pain. Leka, the father of the girl, who has faced difficult situations in the investigation and prisons of the communist dictatorship, in the internment camps, and has shown strong character, managed to hold her own and conveyed to the many participants in the funeral, messages of gratitude and kindness. After the funeral, according to tradition, the Mirakaj family served a last meal for Manjola!
Finally, through the organ of “Vatra”, the newspaper “DIELLI”, on behalf of the Mirakaj and Libohova family, they thanked on this occasion, all the friends and well-wishers, who were close to them in those difficult moments of separation from this life, of their daughter, wife and unforgettable mother, for their two daughters, Anna and Emma.
“We thank,” said the Mirakaj and Libohova family, “all those known and unknown, who were close to us through phone calls and electronic means on social networks, who expressed their pain and consoled us for the loss of Manjola. May we all return to the days of joy”! With respect Lek, Dolores Mirakaj and her husband Agjah Libohova. Farewell Manjola, the girl with a strong character from the internment camps! Soul in Peace! Memorie.al
